The Only Reason She Needed
by austengirl91
Summary: Hermione and Sirius have come to a breaking point in their relationship. Will Sirius have the courage to give Hermione a reason to stay? Rated M just in case for language.


**A/N: So I don't usually write Harry Potter fic, but I was searching through my computer today and I found this one that I wrote while I was having a mental block on my other fic… I don't know why I never published it, so I'm doing it now. Hope you like it!**

**I do not own these characters. They are strictly the property of the wonderfully inventive J.K.R.**

She threw her hands into the air. "I give up! I can't do this anymore! I need someone who will be there for me, Sirius, and you weren't."

She turned to leave but stopped a few steps from the door. Looking back at the man staring somberly into the fireplace she quietly said, "I got the job. I got it and all I wanted to do was kiss you and laugh… but you weren't there." A choked sob escaped her trembling lips and in a blur of chestnut curls and red silk, she turned and fled Black library.

Sirius sat rooted to the same chair he had been in all night. From the moment he got home from Harry's house right up until Hermoine walked through the door in the exquisite dress she had worn to the important banquet he was supposed to escort her to.

He told himself he had forgotten.

No. That was a lie.

He just hadn't gone.

He had thought she wouldn't want him there after the fierce row they had the previous night. She was stressed from overworking herself and had raged at him for breaking a crystal vase after allowing himself one too many firewhiskeys. He had shrugged it off and offered to buy another one. That's what really put her over the edge.

"_You think you can just buy your way out of bloody everything! Just because you have money does not allow you to do whatever you want, consequences be damned because you can pay for whatever you fuck up anyways!" she screamed as she stared at the shattered pieces of crystal on the floor. Tears of rage were streaming down her flushed cheeks as the stress she had held in at work all day violently erupted. _

_Sirius stared at her in shock. He would never had expected her to react this way over a broken vase. A ruined book, yes, but never a silly vase. She was cursing at him. Hermione never cursed. Ever. _

"_You run around all day doing heaven knows what, since you don't bother to work. Then you have the nerve to come home and drink yourself into a stupor and tromp around here, breaking whatever may stand in your way!" her eyes sparked with anger as she regarded the wide-eyed man standing in front of her. _

_When the only response she received was his mouth dropping open slightly, she raged on, "the days of skirt chasing and carousing with your mates are long over, Sirius. Do us all a favor and grow up."_

_As her words slowly started sinking in, his own ire started building. "I thought you held me in higher regard than that, Hermione" he said in a terrifyingly calm tone. "I thought you had gotten past the playboy image Molly painted for you, that you were able to be smart and think for yourself, but I guess the people you think you know best surprise you sometimes." _

_He turned on his heel and left without a backwards glance. _

Thinking back, Sirius felt awful about what he said. He knew she had been working herself to the bone these past few weeks trying desperately to earn the promotion that everyone knew she already had, and she wouldn't have spoken like that were she not stressed. He had definitely crossed the line by insulting her intelligence.

Her words had stung him, though. The one person he had thought believed in him through and through had thrown his past irresponsible self right back in his face over something as silly as a broken vase. It hurt not only because he had worked to get past that image; but because he only truly believed that he had succeeded when he saw her smile at him and reach for his hand. He hadn't believed that he could be so lucky as to deserve someone like her, yet she had been there every day for the past 4 months, making him a better person.

He hadn't been able to face her harsh words, so he decided to crash at Harry's house.

"Coward," he berated himself, still staring into the fire.

Now she was leaving him.

His beautiful witch. Gone. He would never again get to wake up to her mussed curls taking over the pillows on his bed, or smell the perfume she wore just for him, or see the way her eyes went dark when he kissed her. He would never hear her sigh dreamily when he held her hand, something she did subconsciously, but he noticed it and cherished the sound.

His heart wrenched at these thoughts and he suddenly sat bolt upright. He couldn't lose her.

Sirius jumped up and bounded up the stairs of his childhood home. He wasn't sure how long he had sat staring into the flames and he cursed himself for being such a fool. He fervently hoped she hadn't left yet.

He reached the door to the room they shared and threw open the door to find his beautiful Hermione silently weeping as she stood over her half-packed suitcase.

She looked up at him with watery eyes and he knew right then that his world would never be complete without her. He would simply fall apart.

"Don't go." They were words he had never said to any woman before tonight. Words he knew he would never speak to anyone but her.

"Why, Sirius?" she whispered. "I need to know that this means something to you, that you're willing to work through things with me and not run and give up every time we have a fight. I need one good reason. Just one and I'll stay."

Her eyes were pleading with him to give her the answer she needed.

Sirius's chest clenched as he panicked for a moment. He had never completely given himself over to someone before, and he was in unfamiliar territory having to express the complex emotions running through him. Looking back into the eyes of the woman who managed to bring out the best in him, the words came to his mind easily.

"Mione… I love you."

He stood totally exposed for the first time and he was absolutely terrified.

Hermione stood looking at him, eyes wide and mouth slightly ajar. The few seconds of silence seemed to stretch on for ten lifetimes as Sirius worried that he had said the wrong thing.

Suddenly, a smile emerged on her face and before Sirius could register what was happening, Hermione's face was buried in his chest and her arms were locked around his waist. She was saying something, but her words were lost in his shirt. Relieved and chuckling, he tilted her face up and gazed into the chocolate eyes he had come to hold so dear.

"I'm sorry, love, I didn't quite catch that."

Hermione smiled up at him and repeated herself.

"I love you too, Sirius. More than I could ever say."


End file.
